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A new round of talks aimed at resolving a trade war between the US and China is set take place in London on Monday.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that a senior US delegation would meet Chinese representatives. Over the weekend, Beijing confirmed that Vice Premier He Lifeng will attend the talks.<\/p>\n
The announcements came after Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping had a phone conversation last week<\/a>, which the US president described as a “very good talk”.<\/p>\n Last month, the world’s two biggest economies agreed a temporary truce to lower import taxes on goods being traded between them, but since then both countries have accused the other of breaching the deal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Writing on his Truth Social platform on Friday<\/a>, Trump said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would meet Chinese officials in London on Monday.<\/p>\n On Saturday, China’s foreign ministry said Vice Premier He would be in the UK between 8 and 13 June, and that a meeting of the “China-US economic and trade mechanism” would take place.<\/p>\n The new round of negotiations came after Trump said his phone conversation with Xi on Thursday mainly focused on trade and had “resulted in a very positive conclusion for both countries”.<\/p>\n According to Chinese state news agency Xinhua, Xi told Trump that the US should “withdraw the negative measures it has taken against China”.<\/p>\n The call was the first time the two leaders had spoken since the trade war erupted in February.<\/p>\n When Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imports from a number of countries earlier this year, China was the hardest hit. Beijing responded with its own higher rates on US imports, and this triggered tit-for-tat increases that peaked at 145%.<\/p>\n In May, talks held in Switzerland led to a temporary truce<\/a> that Trump called a “total reset”.<\/p>\n It brought US tariffs on Chinese products down to 30%, while Beijing slashed levies on US imports to 10% and promised to lift barriers on critical mineral exports.<\/p>\n The agreement gave both sides a 90-day deadline to try to reach a trade deal.<\/p>\n The latest data released by Bejing on Monday showed China’s exports in May were lower than analysts expected, despite the truce.<\/p>\n China’s exports in dollar terms increased by 4.8% compared to the same time last year.<\/p>\n At the same time imports dropped by 3.4%, which was much worse than the 0.9% fall predicted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But since then, relations appeared to have soured. Last month, Trump said China had “totally violated its agreement with us”<\/a>, and then a few days later China said the US had “severely violated”<\/a> the agreement.<\/p>\n The US accused China of failing to restart shipments of critical minerals and rare earth magnets vital to car and computer industries.<\/p>\n On Saturday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said it had approved some applications for rare earth export licences, although it did not provide details of which countries involved.<\/p>\n The announcement came after Trump said on Friday that Xi had agreed to restart trade in rare earth materials.<\/p>\n Bu speaking on Sunday, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CBS News that “those exports of critical minerals have been getting released at a rate that is, you know, higher than it was, but not as high as we believe we agreed to in Geneva”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n